About Me

greekdefaultwatch@gmail.com
Natural gas consultant by day, blogger on the Greek economy by night. Trained as an economist and political scientist. I believe in common sense and in data, and my aim is to offer insight written in language that is clear and convincing.

11 October 2005

Karen Hughes, Bayan Jabr

The Wall Street Journal has an editorial today endorsing Karen Hughes’ efforts to “sell” America in the Middle East. My thoughts on that are elsewhere; but in case you missed him, I thought I would put on a good word for Bayan Jabr, Iraq’s interior minister, who lambasted the Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal last week (from the BBC website here):

“We are Iraqis and we are responsible for solving our problems, we will not allow anyone to interfere,” said Mr Jabr, who sits in Iraq's parliament for the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), a Shia party. He added: “This Iraq is the cradle of civilisation that taught humanity reading and writing, and some Bedouin riding a camel wants to teach us.” Mr Jabr rounded on the Saudi regime, which he accused of treating millions of women and Shia Muslims as second-class citizens. “They have one god, he is the king, he is the god, and he rules as he likes. A whole country is named after a family.”